Have you ever had a crazy idea for a game and then you actually see it put into motion and it turns out to be a success? Let’s take a few games for example, like Mario, Castle Crashers, Banjo Kazooie, and other games that are just too famous for how unique they are. I think one of the craziest ideas that was ever come up with was Kingdom Hearts for the Playstation 2. Tying in Disney and Final Fantasy? Who knew this was going to work? Well, it was a great idea and it’s a great game, but how great is it?

The story starts off with our main hero, Sora, who had a weird, but ominous dream of something bad happening. He then hangs with his two friends who want to get off the island and explore other worlds. In the Disney Castle, which is on a different world however, another story goes on where the king has gone off on an adventure to solve some issue that is happening in the worlds. Back on the island however, it gets infested with creatures called Heartless, and Sora ends up with a weapon known as the Keyblade. It is up to Sora to stop the Heartless from taking over the world and to find his friends. There is a lot going on, and I would rather not spoil it for people who haven’t played it yet. It’s a good story though, so I recommend looking it up.

The game play is rather unique, since it’s a role-playing action game where you control Sora, who is accompanied by Donald, who uses magic, and Goofy, who uses a shield. You basically go through some original worlds and a lot of Disney-themed worlds. When you go to some worlds, you get to team up with someone there like Tarzan, Beast, and my personal favorite, Jack Skellington. You also gain magical powers like fire and ice, but you can also summon some Disney characters to help you, like in Final Fantasy. Since this is an action role-playing game, all the battles are in real time, meaning you need to stay on your feet so you don’t die. Between levels however, you go into a rail shooting-like section and it’s quite fun to play through them. Though I could have done without them, they are a nice change of game play.

The graphics are impressive. They are way better than Final Fantasy fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon by far. It’s maybe one of the best games for the Playstation 2, and it shows that Square Enix can make a great title when they want to. The music is also a strong note to the game. Square Enix always put in so much care for their Final Fantasy games. For example, some people say the soundtrack to Final Fantasy 6 is the best soundtrack of a Final Fantasy game. I admit, I wish I had bought the soundtrack to Kingdom Hearts. The famous Utada Hikaru sings the theme song used in the game. It also helps that Yoko Shimoura, who is famous for games like Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, Legend of Mana, Super Mario RPG, Little King Story, and many other games, does the soundtrack. The enemies are very creative and it is interesting to see what kind of Heartless you will find in each level.

Now, it is time to talk about the heartless parts of the game. The game is pretty difficult. It took me awhile to get past the first town I ended up in. You will get your butt kicked in some of the tougher fights, and you will get lost from time to time, like I did. They did fix that in the second game, which I’ll talk about later. Even though the voice actors are great in what they do, there are some areas, like when they do text-talking that brings the game to a halt. It just seems like they were lazy, though that is just a small gripe.

All and all, this is just a wonderful game for the Playstation 2, and I would highly recommend buying it for your collection. This idea is so interesting, and it’s just fun to see where you will end up next. I can’t wait for when they announce a Kingdom Hearts 3. Before we can get into that though, we need to talk about its sequel.